By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department seized more than $2.3 million worth of cryptocurrency that was used as a ransom payment to hackers who targeted the Colonial Pipeline in a cyber attack last month.
The ransomeware attack forced the nation’s largest pipeline to shut down its operations on May 7.
Pipeline officials paid a hacker group known as DarkSide nearly 64 bitcoins in ransom.
The DOJ’s newly created Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force recovered the cryptocurrency, a rare feat.
“Following the money remains one of the most basic, yet powerful tools we have,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a statement. “Ransom payments are the fuel that propels the digital extortion engine, and today’s announcement demonstrates that the United States will use all available tools to make these attacks more costly and less profitable for criminal enterprises. We will continue to target the entire ransomware ecosystem to disrupt and deter these attacks. Today’s announcements also demonstrate the value of early notification to law enforcement; we thank Colonial Pipeline for quickly notifying the FBI when they learned that they were targeted by DarkSide.”
The task force managed to identify a virtual currency wallet used by the hackers and obtained a “private key” for the specific address.
“There is no place beyond the reach of the FBI to conceal illicit funds that will prevent us from imposing risk and consequences upon malicious cyber actors,” FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said. “We will continue to use all of our available resources and leverage our domestic and international partnerships to disrupt ransomware attacks and protect our private sector partners and the American public.”
